Pretend Play

It's that time of the year again when little ones are in school either full or part time. The weather is too cold to go out and play on the swing set hidden by the snow.

How about a little pretend play using what you already have at home. The Children's Museum is always filled with fun activities that your little ones are screaming not to be torn from and wish that they had at home.

Let's get creative. We have an area where we created a grocery store. Just set up some extra shelves that we had sitting around. A coffee table or other tables will works just as well.

If you have a cash register that is great! If not maybe a pouch or apron with pockets. How about that old art smock. If you are creative you can sew an apron for little ones.

We raided the pantry and found boxes, containers and canisters to use. First we washed them out and let them thoroughly dry. Then we taped the boxes shut and used a hot glue gun to glue the lids on the containers and canisters.

Oatmeal boxes, peanut containers, old syrup bottles, pop bottles, empty milk jugs you get the idea!

We then placed them on our empty shelves in our pretend grocery store area. Used the plastic food we had from our play kitchen set and finally our store was stocked. We could not forget that our ladies or gents would need a place to store their play money and coupons so we used old purses and wallets that should have been donated a long time ago. We used some empty baskets as our shopping baskets.

We used brown paper bags that we save after our weekly shopping trips or gift bags from gifts.


We found great templates for pretend money at :

http://www.moneyinstructor.com/docs/pdf/bills_20.pdf

We also found great templates for coupons at:

http://couponing.about.com/od/groceryzone/ss/teach1_1grp_3.htm

We printed the money and coupons and then cut them individually. Pefect size for little hands. We were now ready for our grand opening!

Halloween Right Around the Corner

As we are preparing for our annual Halloween Party I am loving all of the beautiful designs out there again! Here are a few of our favorites. Each year we create a haunted trail in our yard and set up games and costume contests for the kids. What a blast! Cannot wait for another bigger and better party this year!

4 Things Every Mom Must Do

Create a budget

Get Life Insurance

Update Beneficiaries

Have a will or living trust

Going Euro with Style

I am absolutely loving the Euro designs out there this year. So many wonderful colors and unique designs make them a favorite.

This Bear dress by Maddie*Kate is absolutely darling...


There are so many more designs that are simply stunning. Search Boutique Euro on Ebay and Etsy to find more wonderfully designed outfits.

We love the bright colors so much we had to design a necklace to go with many of the designs out there. You can find this necklace on Etsy by Spoiled-Rotten-Designz

Cheerful Givers

In this day and age with so many jobs being lost and it being hard in many areas to find a new line of work with the economy kids are harmed as well. I found a great article that spoke of a wonderful group called Cheerful Givers. They provide toy filled birthday gift bags to food shelves and shelters so that parents living in poverty can give their child a gift.

What a wonderful organization. Every child deserves something special for their birthday!

CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY TURNOVER RECIPE

* 12 sheets filo dough (each about 14x9 in.) thawed if frozen
* 1 bar (3.5 oz) Lindt Lindor truffles (18 pieces)
* 1/2 pint fresh raspberries

Serves 6
Active: 30 minutes/Total 42 minutes

1) Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Have a baking sheet ready. Unfold filo; cover with plastic wrap to prevent drying.

2) Make each turnover: Remove 1 sheet fillo; lighly coat with nonstick spray or brush with melted butter. Fold in thirds lenghtwise; lightly spray or brush top. Place 1 piece of chocolate about 1/2 inch from bottom end of strip; top with 1 raspberry. Fold lower right corner over filling, forming a triangle. Continue folding triangles to other end of strip. Place on baking sheet. Repeat to make 12.

3) Bake 10 to 12 minutes until golden. Remove to wire rack to cool. Melt remaining 6 pieces chocolate in microwave; drizzle over turnovers. Serve warm or at room temperature. Garnish with remaining raspberries.

Theme for the next month...FOOD FOR THOUGHT

There are so many times that I see something and say hmmm! That makes perfect sense. Well this month I will share the "Food for thought" ideas that I have come across.


For today... Grab your pen and paper and try this out!

We live in a culture that encourages us to shop. But how savvy a customer are you? Find a quiet moment and consider the following...

1) What we buy and how much we spend are influenced by how we feel. Think of a day when you shopped when you were angry, anxious, lonely or blue. What did you purchase? Did you enjoy it, return it, or wish you'd spent your time doing something else?

2) Family attitudes and habits we encountered in childhood may influence us for a lifetime. What good shopping habits did you learn growing up? What bad habits have you inherited?

3) We can be smart shoppers in some areas (say, food or clothes or airfare) and noodleheads in others (like furniture, fixtures and more). What do you tend to purchase wisely? Were do you go astray? What makes shopping for these items hard for you? Do you need a shopping coach?

4) On a scale of one (you never trust 'em) to ten (you're a salesman's dream), how susceptible to advertisements or sales pitches are you? Have you ever bought something you didn't need because of a commercial or a print ad? Consider how you could be more discriminating.

5) Imagine that your closet went up in flames and you had to rebuild your wardrobe with only a few key pieces. Which items would you pick? To see how it would feel, select ten things you already own (not counting underwear or pajamas) and wear just hose for the next week. Was it difficult? A relief? Were you surprised at how little you could get by with?

As Americans we are spoiled when you really think about it. All of the choices, ads, credit and accumulation of things that we really don't need but purchase on an impulse, just to have or to keep up with the neighbors.

Is it all really necessary? We need to purchase more storage containers and bigger homes just to store all of the STUFF that we really never needed to begin with.